Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, for inviting me to share my thoughts on the emerging digital media environment. The mandate of Library and Archives Canada is to capture and preserve the documentary heritage of Canadians, including that of the Government of

Canadian Heritage committee  We have just started with associations of librarians and archivists across the country. They are national, provincial, and territorial associations. We met once on the topic of developing a common trusted digital repository and working together to get a better understanding of wh

Canadian Heritage committee  In what area?

Canadian Heritage committee  That's a question I wouldn't dare answer. We're quite advanced. We at Library and Archives Canada have approximately 20 million digitized items. That's virtually unequalled. Around the world, a lot of efforts are being made and many documents are being prepared on strategies, but

Canadian Heritage committee  No. The analog documents we have are well preserved. We have excellent preservation conditions. There is a preservation centre in Gatineau. There are such centres virtually everywhere across the country. We recently acquired a special building to preserve what we call nitrate fil

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, it's nearly 100%, although there are always bits that disappear.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm pleased you asked me the question. That's one of our challenges. We work upstream. Our role is to ensure that our heritage will be there in 5, 10, 20, 50 years. Our archivists, our librarians are dealing with this new complexity. It's related to the fact that an enormous quan

Canadian Heritage committee  To date, we've had very good support. We are getting in all in shape. In any case, as I mentioned earlier, it will be a collaborative effort, and we'll be doing it with colleagues. With regard with what we're doing now, the most important thing will be the digital preservation is

Canadian Heritage committee  There are two aspects. The first concerns acquisition. It's not simply a matter of digitization, but also of acquisition. We're trying to establish new criteria to ensure we retain only information that, over time, is relevant for Canadians. We'll probably be more selective and n

Canadian Heritage committee  I knock on wood and cross my fingers. For the moment, it's solved, yes. In fact, we worked very hard with the Department of Public Works. The situation will further improve because we received funding to expand the preservation centre in Gatineau. It will be a building with high-

Canadian Heritage committee  When you save something on your computer, it's saved somewhere, but not necessarily preserved and organized. You don't necessarily ensure the information will be transferred when the next version of the software appears. If, for example, you go back to your old computer, which is

Canadian Heritage committee  No, the 395 Wellington Street site simply isn't a preservation location. It's a consultation location, a reference location.

Canadian Heritage committee  In fact, the problems we had have been solved, but I wouldn't be able to provide any major details on the subject. I'm not a building experts from the Department of Public Works. For the moment, there's been no damage.

Official Languages committee  Thank you, Mr. Blaney. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before your committee today. I am appearing before you in response to the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Official Languages which was tabled on November 2. That report co

Official Languages committee  I'm very much aware that the overall mark is not very high. That's because the commissioner put the emphasis on part VII of the Official Languages Act, that is to say consultation with the communities. You have to understand that Library and Archives Canada is an organization tha